Pulling Weeds

I am going to keep the weeds under control in this lettuce

By the end of June, the weeds had gotten out of hand. They are slowly, but surly, getting reined in.

The new Valley Oak Wheel Hoe

Back in the beginning of June, I wrote about the change in the focus of work during the season, and I said that eventually, weeding pressure would ease off. I still think that it will, but not until after we get through this round of weeding. With the extra rain we had in June (above average rainfall) the weeds really took off. Unlike the summer crops, weeds don’t need much heat to grow. They managed quite well in the slightly below average temperatures in June. The rain is really what makes the difference and the weeds sure took advantage of the moisture. They grew like crazy in June and I didn’t keep up. I know I need to be using that beautiful diamond scuffle hoe I bought last year and Jonas did get through some squash and potatoes with the scuffle hoe early on.  I even bought another hoe recently, a Valley Oak Wheel Hoe, for pathways and larger areas, because keeping up with weeding is that important. Unfortunately, the weeds are much too big now for either hoe and need to be pulled by hand.

I started weeding these beans…the bottoms part is done, but more weeds need to be pulled up top. I hope I am not setting the table for the deer to come and eat…

So pull by hand we will. The last few weeks, with extra help from Steven while he took time off from work, we have been working bed by bed to get the weeds cleared. The progress is good, though it gets interrupted now and again to clear beds and plant more for fall. July has been drier than average (when does that ever happen?), which means the weeds won’t come back as fast or strong. I have hopes that we’ll keep up a bit better in the next round, using those beautiful hoes.